Vanillite Line/BW
Vanillite can be found in Cold Storage's exterior, Route 6, and during the winter, Dragonspiral Tower's exterior. Its first evolution, Vanillish, can be found in Dragonspiral Tower's exterior only during the winter. Standard for an Ice-type, the controversially designed Vanillite line contains useful attackers, with their high Special Attack plus STAB Ice Beam spelling doom for most foes, not to mention their capability of sweeping the last gym. Nonstandard for an Ice-type, the Vanillite line has well-balanced stats. Sadly, the Elite Four is like a minefield to it, hindering its chances of survival later on. Important Matchups * Bianca (Driftveil City): Avoid Herdier - Take Down is a 2HKO against you even with Eviolite; factor in Vanillite's speed and you'll always be hit first. Out of all the elemental monkeys, Pansage is the easiest to fight against, going down to one Avalanche. Panpour is a lot harder to defeat as it resists all the moves you have. Pansear will obviously melt you. The same applies to the starters; Pignite is a no, Dewott is just barely doable, and Servine is the easiest to KO. Lastly, Musharna is too bulky to take on. * N (Chargestone Cave): With all the other Pokémon being either Rock or Steel types, the only Pokémon Vanillite can reliably fight is Joltik, who goes down to 2 Avalanches. * Gym #6 - Skyla (Mistralton City, Flying-type): Vanillish easily takes care of the first 2 Pokémon with Ice Beam, though Swanna will be a roadblock due to its part-Water typing. Regardless, Vanillish can still 2KHO it, but be careful as Swanna's moves can 3HKO Vanillish, or possibly 2HKO in the case of a crit. * Cheren (Route 7): Liepard is a relatively easy fight, as with Unfezant, both going down to 1-2 Ice Beams each. As said earlier, Pignite is a no, Dewott is just barely doable, and Servine is the easiest to KO. * Gym #7 - Brycen (Icirrus City, Ice-type): Flash Cannon, which you can thankfully get shortly before this gym, makes this gym a whole lot easier. First off, you will likely outspeed the other Vanillish, so Flash Cannon away; its strongest move it can use against you is the weaker Mirror Shot anyways. The tanky Cryogonal outspeeds you, but its strongest move is Aurora Beam, which you resist, so Flash Cannon it away too. The Beartic can be annoying with Swagger and the powerful Slash, but Flash Cannon spam still makes it possible for you to plow through it. It is preferable for Vanillish to hold an Eviolite if it hasn't evolved yet, as without it the Beartic has a chance of beating it first with Slash. * Bianca (Route 8): Weirdly enough, Stoutland is actually a bit weaker than Herdier as it no longer has Take Down, using the less powerful Retaliate instead, therefore becoming easier to fight. However, don't let this deceive you into battling it alone, as you can still easily be KOed, even with Eviolite. Tread the rest of this battle with caution; Musharna is still tanky, Simisage is still the easiest monkey to fight, etc.. * Gym #8 - Iris/Drayden (Opelucid City, Dragon-type): Ice Beam OHKOs everybody on the team... that is, if you're a Vanilluxe. A Vanillish is in more danger here, even with an Eviolite, as while Ice Beam remains a OHKO against Fraxure, it becomes a 2HKO against the rest; the remaining dragons can 2HKO you in return. Things get worse without an Eviolite, because now the Haxorus has a strong chance of OHKOing you. In short, evolve your Vanillish if possible for an easy sweep. * Cheren (Route 10): If you still have it, Vanillish will absolutely need an Eviolite. Unfezant is still an easy KO, going down to a single Ice Beam, or two if you're Vanillish. Liepard has Night Slash now making it harder than before, but it still goes down to 2 Ice Beams. The matchups against the elemental monkeys are still the same as before, as with the starters; keep in mind that Serperior has Slam. * Elite Four Shauntal (Pokémon League, Ghost-type): Cofagrigus goes down to 3 Ice Beams, albeit it may kill you first if you miss an attack. The same applies for Golurk; even though it has Brick Break, it is not that threatening and goes down to 2 Ice Beams. Don't fight Jellicent, because you only have not very effective moves against it, plus Cursed Body can be annoying. Avoid Chandelure for obvious reasons. * Elite Four Marshal (Pokémon League, Fighting-type): Throh and Sawk may be doable as their Fighting-type moves are rather weak. Otherwise, don't do this to your Vanilluxe. * Elite Four Grimsley (Pokémon League, Dark-type): Scrafty is a probably bad idea. Likewise with Bisharp. Krookodile is a much more even fight, with it going down to a single Blizzard or 2 Ice Beams. On the other hand, Krookodile outspeeds you in return plus 2HKOs you back with Earthquake. Liepard can't do much besides annoy with Attract if you have a male Vanilluxe. * Elite Four Caitlin (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): Reuniclus' slowness is tempting, but has Focus Blast, so that's an automatic no. However, Sigilyph is OHKOed by Ice Beam, and you outspeed the other two team members. While Musharna is taken care of with 2 Ice Beams, Gothitelle will be harder to take out since it has a high Special Defense, plus has a higher chance of KOing you first. Still, Gothitelle can be taken out with 3 Ice Beams. Beware unlucky crits. * Reshiram/Zekrom (N's Castle): It should go without saying, but do not fight Reshiram due to its abundance of Fire-type moves. Zekrom is more manageable, but still not recommended as it can 2HKO you as easily as you can 2HKO it. * N (N's Castle): The same advice about Reshiram can be applied here. Likewise, the advice to Zekrom applies again. Zoroark has Flamethrower and Focus Blast, so avoid that too; similarly, don't let Illusion fool you. Carracosta should be avoided as it easily OHKOs with Stone Edge, and is rather tough to take down otherwise with you having 3HKOs at best. Archeops can be whittled down to Defeatist range easily with just 1 Ice Beam which might even kill it too if it crits, or if Vanilluxe is holding Never-Melt Ice. The mirror match against N's Vanilluxe is interesting because while N's Vanilluxe doesn't have Ice Beam, using the much weaker Frost Breath instead, it has Flash Cannon. A switch-out is preferred here. * Ghetsis (N's Castle): This battle is more or less death row for Vanilluxe, because it can only take on one of Ghetsis' members semi-reliably. Cofagrigus is risky, but with Hail or Never-Melt Ice equipped, Blizzard can 2HKO it. The fast Bouffalant's Head Charge has a small chance of being an OHKO. Avoid it. The same is to be done with Eelektross and its Flamethrower. Seismitoad is not a good idea because of Swift Swim + Earthquake. While you might outspeed Bisharp, there's barely anything you can do to it. Finally, Ghetsis had the smart idea of using Fire/Fighting moves on his Hydreigon, so that too is out of the question. * Post-Game: Vanilluxe is not recommended for the Elite Four rematch where the Pokémon now have even more coverage moves to use against Vanilluxe. Otherwise, use standard caution, freeze Cynthia's Garchomp to death, and whittle Kyurem down. Recommended Teammates * Ground-types: Ground-types are able to super-effectively deal with Rock, Steel, and Fire, 3 of Vanilluxe's 4 weaknesses and simultaneously resist Rock, thus making them good offensive partners. Seismitoad in particular is an especially good option as it also resists Fire and Steel. A few examples of this include Krookodile, Seismitoad and Excadrill. Moves By the time you are first able to catch Vanillite, it will have Uproar/Taunt, Icy Wind, Avalanche, and Mist. Icy Wind is decent STAB, and Avalanche, while relying on Vanillite's inferior Attack stat, often becomes a whopping 120 BP move given the move's quirks and Vanillite's speed, making it surprisingly useful earlier on. The two other moves are too situational to see use. Upon getting to level 26, Vanillite learns Mirror Shot, a decent coverage option for pesky Ice and Rock types. At level 31, it learns Acid Armor, but Vanillite usually won't be able to set it up or need it anyways. Level 35 rewards your patience with an evolution in addition to Ice Beam, a powerful move that provides the primary choice of STAB. Level 42 gets you Hail, which is where your abilities come into play. Level 47 gets you another evolution and Mirror Coat, a counter move generally not worth the gamble, as Ice Beam + Flash Cannon will take care of most things anyways. Level 53 (Vanillish)/Level 59 (Vanilluxe) gets you Blizzard - while seemingly inaccurate at first glance, it'll never miss under Hail. This means the move is another must-have, even moreso if you have Hail. Finally, Sheer Cold is learned at Level 58 (Vanillish)/Level 67 (Vanilluxe); unfortunately, it's way too unreliable, and you have Blizzard anyways. A major downside to Vanilluxe is its lack of TMs, or rather what the TMs contain. The best one Vanilluxe can learn is Flash Cannon, which is a straight upgrade to Mirror Shot. You're also given both Toxic and Protect, in case you want to do some stalling. A good Hidden Power like Ground/Psychic deals with Vanilluxe's other weakness, despite being highly situational. Sadly, the good TMs stop there. The other options are either underwhelming, such as Frost Breath, Explosion, and Round, or moves that Vanilluxe can already learn, like Ice Beam and Blizzard. Never-Melt Ice boosts the already powerful Ice Beam, therefore it is the recommended item for a Vanilluxe. Recommended moveset: Flash Cannon, Ice Beam, Hail/Hidden Power (Ground or Psychic), Blizzard Other Vanillite's stats Vanillish's stats Vanilluxe's stats * Which Nature do I want? Since you're going to need all the Special power you can get, a nature that doesn't lower Special Attack is preferred. Modest should work best. For those who want a speed boost, Hasty does well. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? You should have a Vanillish by Skyla, which should then be a Vanilluxe before fighting Iris/Drayden. Most importantly, though, is to evolve Vanillite into Vanillish as soon as you can, because it is frail. * How good is the Vanillite line in a Nuzlocke? Pretty good, at least earlier on. It has good stats, can hit hard with Ice Beam and set up weather, but its typing and movepool is a bit of a cripple to it. Notably, its selection of non-Normal/Ice moves is either risky or too weak, barring the Steel moves it learns. The abundance of moves that it is weak to becomes increasingly obvious later on, although the line can still be reliable if your cards are played right. * Weaknesses: Fighting, Fire, Rock, Steel * Resistances: Ice * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Normal, Flying, Poison, Ground, Bug, Ghost, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Dragon, Dark